U.S. rice exports to China yet to go through legal procedures

U.S. rice exports to China are yet to go through legal procedures, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Wednesday.

The two countries reached an agreement on inspection and quarantine protocols for U.S. rice exports to China during the first China-U.S. Comprehensive Economic Dialogue (CED) on July 19, 2017.

That was just the first step of legal procedures the two sides must go through, said an MOC spokesperson.

There are two further steps: one is that the U.S. government will recommend registered rice exporters to Chinese inspection and quarantine authorities who will recognize qualified companies; the other is that U.S. authorities will use methods approved by Chinese experts to fumigate rice from qualified exporters in order to prevent harmful biological threats, according to the spokesperson.

The CED saw the world's two largest economies resolve a number of issues in their trade relationship while agreeing to work together to solve outstanding problems.

According to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. rice exports to China can begin following the completion of an audit of U.S. rice facilities by China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. It will be the first time the United States has exported rice to China, said the department.

China and the United States exchanged views on issues such as the removal of the ban on Chinese and U.S. poultry products on a reciprocal basis and the export of Chinese dairy and seafood products to the United States.

The CED is one of the four major dialogues established by the two countries in April.